Drivers across the USA are digging deeper into their pockets as more states and communities raise tolls or impose them for the first time to build and repair highways, bridges and tunnels.
Motorists are paying more at such landmarks as Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Holland Tunnel between New York and New Jersey. They'll soon have to ante up on Interstate 95 in Virginia.
This year, California, Washington, Texas and Indiana moved to make it easier to collect tolls on state and local roads, according to Alice Wheet, a transportation research assistant at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states are raising tolls while others
move to add or expand toll lanes on interstates.
Among the recent efforts:
•California and Washington authorized high-occcupancy toll (HOT) lanes, where tolls rise or fall depending on traffic flow. Texas enacted laws authorizing private toll roads and
allowing regional authorities to collect tolls. Indiana removed a provision requiring legislative approval for toll roads.
•Some Maryland tolls will double this year as the state seeks money to rehabilitate aging roads, bridges and tunnels.
The use of tolls on interstate highways also is spreading:
•Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, just won approval from the Federal Highway Administration to add tolls on Interstate 95 in his state. The state estimates that tolls on the heavily traveled corridor could generate $250 million over the first five years for expanding, improving and maintaining the highway.
•New York and New Jersey recently announced that E-ZPass commuters will pay $1.50 more and cash customers $2 more to cross bridges
and tunnels between the two states.
•Georgia just created toll lanes on Interstate 85 in suburban Atlanta.
The toll hikes are more than chump change: Cash tolls on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge jumped to $4 from $2.50, and to $12 from $8 on all the New York-New Jersey Hudson River crossings.
The trend reflects tough economic times and growing uncertainty in state capitols about the future of federal road money. Congress has repeatedly delayed approval of a multiyear funding bill for highway projects.
The tolling also highlights the intensifying national debate over how the USA should pay to maintain and improve highways, bridges and tunnels — the federal fuel tax, tolls or something else, such as public-private
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